* No Spoilers Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Scottish Forensic Anthropologist and Professor Sue Black’s memoir about her life confronting death won the Saltire Book of the Year in 2018. Forensic anthropology (in case you are wondering) is the study of human remains in order to solve criminal cases. I was very excited to read this book. YetContinue reading “Book Review: All that Remains: A Life in Death by Sue Black”
Category Archives: Book Reviews
Book Review: The Sky Atlas by Edward Brooke Hitching
* No Spoilers Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Edward Brooke Hitching, history-hound, lover of quirky things and writer for the ever-popular and erudite quiz show QI, has written The Sky Atlas. A treasury and history of some of humankind’s most beautiful maps and charts. Yet this book is more than that, it’s a sparkling and glittering array ofContinue reading “Book Review: The Sky Atlas by Edward Brooke Hitching”
Book Review: The Lives of the Surrealists by Desmond Morris
* No Spoilers Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 This is an incredible book. Written by Desmond Morris who is a prominent Zoologist and well-known for his book The Naked Ape. It’s possibly less widely known that Morris was himself a surrealist and knew many of the prominent surrealists in the art movement. I have to admit not knowingContinue reading “Book Review: The Lives of the Surrealists by Desmond Morris”
Book Review: Lost Wisdom by Una McGovern and Paul Jenner
* No Spoilers Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Lost Wisdom and its two other companion books Lost Crafts and Lost Lore are beautifully typeset and laid out. Their contents are a cabinet of curiosities – a wunderkammer of the same sort as the Book of Barely Imagined Beings, which I have mentioned in the past. Although in thisContinue reading “Book Review: Lost Wisdom by Una McGovern and Paul Jenner”
Book Review: Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
This is the second and much awaited fictional novel by the Japanese author of Convenience Store Woman. A book I have also reviewed and absolutely adored in the past. Earthlings traverses familiar themes, just as in Convenience Store Woman there is a female social outcast as the main character in the book. Although that’s whereContinue reading “Book Review: Earthlings by Sayaka Murata”
Book Review: Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach
Tulip Fever is one of the most captivating historical fiction reads I have had the pleasure of enjoying in recent years. Tulip Fever takes place in Amsterdam in the 1630’s during a time of immense wealth that is brought into the country by merchants and tulip sellers. If you enjoyed that other iconic historical novelContinue reading “Book Review: Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach”
Book Review: The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
* No Spoilers Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 “We all live in patterns we do not see. We are all following magic ravens, even when we are lost. Otherwise there would be no story.” ~ Sarah Moss, The Tidal Zone. Sarah Moss is now my favourite writer. She seems to be a occupied with the lives of women.Continue reading “Book Review: The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss”
Book Review: The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris
This is an electrifying book about the history of surgery from the point of view of one of its pioneers, Joseph Lister. A humble and unassuming Quaker, Lister managed to rise up through the ranks of Edinburgh’s medical community and gained a reputation along the way for his serious dedication to experimentation and the empatheticContinue reading “Book Review: The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris”
Book Review: Standing At the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet by Joan Halifax @jhalifax
Standing At the Edge is a once in a lifetime kind of book. I don’t say that lightly either. It’s a life-changing and life-affirming book that combines philosophy, Zen Buddhism, psychology, and much more and manages to be both personal and relevant for individuals as well as being vastly relevant to the entire human race.Continue reading “Book Review: Standing At the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet by Joan Halifax @jhalifax”
Book Review: The Fashion Chronicles: Style Stories of History’s Best Dressed by Amber Butchard
Amber Butchard is the charismatic TV host of the BBC’s ‘A Stitch in Time’, a fantastic show about the history of fashion told in several outfits. She is also a fashion historian and author. She has blazing red hair in a chic bob, wears interesting hats and bright red lipstick. She has a real panacheContinue reading “Book Review: The Fashion Chronicles: Style Stories of History’s Best Dressed by Amber Butchard”
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